Media formats for consumer electronics devices are becoming increasingly complicated, while also moving much of their advanced functionality from hardware to software. As a result, the software environments of consumer electronics devices have become increasingly complicated.
In addition, older and simpler formats such as DVD still leave some of their processing to software even though they offload much of their processing to cheaper and simpler hardware. For example, while audio and video streams are likely to be decoded by dedicated hardware, menu processing (or “navigation”) functionality may be implemented in software. While basic navigation software can be relatively simple, the DVD market has evolved over time. DVD players have responded with complicated menu processing logic to correctly handle DVDs with more features. As a result, the relatively simple DVD format has evolved so that its playback software is now quite complicated. Many player manufacturers have a significant investment in this software, and the software has evolved over time to have dependencies on their operating environments.
With different media formats available, there exists a need for consumer electronics devices that support multiple formats. For example, when one considers that users generally expect their DVD player to also play CD Audio discs, which is a very different media format, it becomes clear that supporting multiple formats is desirable. A problem to be addressed, then, is how to run multiple software applications that may require their own operating systems in a cost-effective manner.